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For better or worse, whether we keep them or not, we at TheBlaze declare our New Year’s resolutions…

“My New Year’s Resolution is to be kinder to others and to myself – I have not been the most forgiving person in 2013 and I need to leave that in the past. Also, I would like to read 20 novels, learn to speak Spanish and overcome my fear of water. Just ’cause those are fun.”– Sarah Rivette, commentary editor

“My New Year’s resolution is to find a cause that I care about and volunteer my time.”– Madeleine Morgenstern, front page editor

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From ABC News: “After pushing for his dream ski resort, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un finally rode the lift at Masik Pass Ski Resort, which only took one year to build from scratch.”

Rodong Sinmun/EPA

And in case you wondered what Kim said to his people on New Year’s day in North Korea…

Here’s an excerpt:

“The thriving socialist country we are building is a civilized socialist one where all its people are possessed of profound cultural knowledge, sturdy physique and noble moral virtues, enjoying a socialist life to their heart’s content under the most cultured conditions and environment, and a beautiful and sound lifestyle pervades the whole society. …

“We should develop Pyongyang into a more majestic and picturesque city as befits the capital of Juche Korea, the centre of Songun culture, and turn all streets and villages, mountains and rivers in provinces, cities and counties into a socialist paradise. At the same time we should set up modern cultural and welfare facilities, parks and pleasure grounds in larger numbers, thus making our people enjoy a cultured life of a new era to their heart’s content.”

A few days late to this, but here are some of the results from a recent poll conducted by Democratic polling firm Public Policy Polling:

[T]here’s a new issue dividing us this holiday season, and that’s whether Santa is ‘verifiably white.’ Only 32% of Americans think he is, while 36% say he is not and another 32% say they aren’t sure. The high level of indecision may be owing to only 43% of Americans saying they believe in Santa Claus to 50% who don’t. Those numbers are down from 52% saying they believed in him a year ago, and surely some sociologist can explain to us what happened this year to make us lose our faith.

Republicans think Santa is ‘verifiably white’ by a 42/23 margin, while Democrats think he is not by a 24/48 spread. That partisan divide spills over into opinions of Fox host Megyn Kelley. The most important part of Kelly’s poll numbers may be that 58% of Americans don’t have an opinion of her even after the biggest week in the spotlight of her career to date. Most people have better things to do than worry about cable news. At any rate she has a 26% favorabil

On this New Year’s Eve, Fox News anchor Geraldo Rivera treated his nearly 50,000 Twitter followers to a series of updates on his gnarled foot, the result of what he claims was a botched back surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.

via Twitter @GeraldoRivera

“Getting ready for surgery on foot ruined by [Hospital for Special Surgery],” Rivera tweeted Tuesday. A photo of his mangled big toe set atop a copy of the day’s New York Times was included.

“Patient is is reasonably good spirits despite hair riot,” Rivera then tweeted with a selfie inside Mount Sinai Hospital, also in New York.

“Survive surgery,” read a followup tweet. This one also included one of Rivera’s notorious selfies. But rather than standing almost nude in front of a mirror, he was seated in a chair, wearing a hospital gown (hopefully closed in the back).

“On the mend,” said a third tweet, accompanied by a photo of a foot wearing a brace.

“Heading home!” read a final tweet. “Thanks Mt. Sinai Hospital. No thanks Hospital for Special Surgery for botched original job-Happy New Year.” Included was a photo of Rivera on crutches… (more…)

The Vatican felt compelled on Tuesday to deny that Pope Francis had “abolished sin”, after a well-known Italian intellectual wrote that he had effectively done so through his words and gestures.

The singular exchange began on Sunday when Eugenio Scalfari, an atheist who writes opinion pieces for the left-leaning La Repubblica newspaper, published an article titled “Francis’ Revolution: He has abolished sin”.

Scalfari, who held a long private conversation with the pope earlier this year and wrote about it several times, concluded in the complex, treatise-like article that Francis believed sin effectively no longer existed because God’s mercy and forgiveness were “eternal”.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told Vatican Radio that “this affirmation that the pope has abolished sin” was wrong.

“Those who really follow the pope daily know how many times he has spoken about sin and our (human) condition as sinners,” Lombardi said.

In step with the others who this weekend on MSNBC mocked a Romney family photo that included one of its adopted members, a black baby named Kieran, Dean Obeidallah writes in The Daily Beast:

I told a joke that many on the right—and even a few in the middle—didn’t like. This all happened Sunday when I was on MSNBC’s Melissa Harris Perry show with three other comedians for an episode called: “Look back on 2013 and Laugh.” …

With that said, let me be clear: I want to sincerely apologize to the Romney family if anyone was offended by my joke. I did not in anyway mean to attack the Romney family for adopting a child, which is truly commendable. Nor did I intend to mock baby Kieran in any way. I would never intentionally demonize people in that manner. …

And let me also be clear to the self-appointed right-wing pundits: I will never stop calling out the wrongs and hypocrisy of the right. Be it citing Jesus’ name to justify slashing programs that help the less fortunate, demonizing Muslims or gays for political gain, or trying to disenfranchise minority voters with voter ID laws. And for those jokes and comments, I can assure you, I will never apologize.

Melissa Harris-Perry, who hosted the segment mocking the photo has apologized and so has one of the other panelists, actress Pia Glenn.

Erick Bennett, a conservative Portland consultant who has launched a Republican primary campaign against incumbent U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, says his experience with the justice system — which he obtained when he was convicted of domestic violence assault 10 years ago — is driving him toward what he calls a “pro-family” agenda.

Here’s more from the Bangor Daily News:

Bennett held a news conference Monday in Portland, during which he talked about his campaign, the domestic violence conviction, and controversy over his self-described role as a staffer for Gov. Paul LePage’s 2010 campaign — a role that others in LePage’s campaign team said Bennett never played. (more…)

A good politician, as Napoleon once said about military men, has to have luck — and this has not been a lucky year for Clinton. If she’s the next Democratic presidential candidate, she will have to follow a Democratic president whose approval ratings — once as high as 76 percent — are now scraping 40. As a former member of Barack Obama’s Cabinet, she has to defend the indefensible, kiss the ugly baby of Obamacare and smile for the cameras. She can do it — no one soldiers on better — but ugly is ugly, and the rollout of Obamacare has been just that. …

Hillary Clinton … is the quintessential Washington insider, a former secretary of state whose portfolio is devoid of a soaring triumph and whose name is attached not to some diplomatic doctrine but to a failed health-insurance plan. She might make a wonderful president, but she’s following a man who, by virtue of his failures, has made that harder. As in 2008, Barack Obama could wind up defeating her.

As Becket reported earlier, MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry took to Twitter this morning with an apology for mocking Mitt Romney’s family portrait and his adopted black grandchild. Like a true social media maven, MHP’s apology included a self-promotional hashtag.

A detail that has gone largely unnoticed in the controversial New York Times report regarding the 2012 Benghazi attack: A Times reporter was supposedly there at the time of the incident and even talked to some of the attackers.

There is no doubt that anger over the [YouTube] video [mocking Islam and created in the U.S.] motivated many attackers. A Libyan journalist working for The New York Times was blocked from entering by the sentries outside, and he learned of the film from the fighters who stopped him.

David Kirkpatrick, author of the new report, reiterated this in a tweet last night: “We had a reporter on the scene talking to the attackers during the attack- still invaluable,” he wrote.

In effect, this would seem to mean someone at the Times knows who the attackers are.

We’ve requested comment from Kirkpatrick as to who the Times reporter at the scene was and whether he’s been asked by the U.S. to cooperate in any investigations on the matter.

Update: Reached by phone, Kirkpatrick said that “as a matter of policy” he doesn’t want to discuss his reporting on his story.

Blaze Books only launched in November, but as we ring in the New Year we thought it apt to look back at every book reviewed since our inception. Check out the great titles we have covered below, and look for many more to come in 2014:

Blazing Fast Review: British MEP Daniel Hannan makes a spirited case for the exceptionalism of the Anglosphere, and harkens a call for its people to uphold its values, for the benefit of all of civilization.

Blazing Fast Review: Dan Bongino describes his thrilling career in law enforcement culminating as a Secret Service agent in the Presidential Protective Division (PPD), and why he was compelled to walk away from his highly sought after position to pursue elective office against heavily favored Democratic Senator Ben Cardin. Along the way he provides on-the-ground insight into the life of an agent protecting the country’s most important assets, and how he developed a political ideology completely anathema to those he served and shielded.

Blaze Books only launched in November, but as we ring in the New Year we thought it apt to look back at some of the book lists contributed since our inception. Check out the lists below, and look for many more to come in 2014:

We had our doubts when Mike was elected. Bloomberg, we noted, was a “life-long liberal Democrat” who was “lefty to the core” and lacked political experience. The question was whether the Rudy Giuliani gains — especially against crime — would stick.

The record is now before us. Recall that Rudy had already reduced murders and other violence to levels no one had thought possible. Yet with Ray Kelly at the helm of the NYPD, crime rates plunged even further: Murders, for example, dropped to fewer than 340 this year (a record) from 649 in 2001. …

Mike also took on the sacred cows of education. True, our schools still have a long way to go, given that two out of three city kids graduate unprepared for either college or a job. But Mike’s policies chipped away at the education cartel that has made our public schools more of a jobs program for the teachers unions than a program of learning for city schoolchildren. …

So on this, Bloomberg’s last day in office, The Post says simply: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. You did New York proud.